Recruiting Report: Mitchell Burger (2016)
Cedar Rapids Xavier point guard Mitchell Burger is off to a fantastic start to his season, and that’s no surprise considering the tremendous offseason he had with Iowa Pump ‘N Run. But still, he says he’s seen very little interest…
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Continue ReadingCedar Rapids Xavier point guard Mitchell Burger is off to a fantastic start to his season, and that’s no surprise considering the tremendous offseason he had with Iowa Pump ‘N Run.
But still, he says he’s seen very little interest come his way from college programs, and unless the right sized school were to offer him, it’s likely that Burger would forgo playing hoops in college and just focus on academics instead.
“I’m not really trying to go to college for basketball, I kind of want to go to Iowa just for school. But in general if interest does come my way I won’t look away, I’ll listen to it for sure,” said Burger.
He says if the right Division II school were to show interest and potentially offer, he’d pursue his basketball career.
“If I had an offer come up this season, something interesting that I could pursue I would definitely look into that,” said Burger.
“There’s small schools like Kirkwood who have shown interest, but nothing much really. Any decent D2 school or something like that would get me interested. I love basketball so if an offer like that came my way I’d definitely be excited.”
Meanwhile, the 5-foot-11 point guard has been thrust into a leadership role with the Saints, and says defense will be key to his team’s success.
“I think my main focus this year is just really becoming a lock-down defender. The offense will come because we have a lot of scorers, so if we can lock down on defense as a team – and me personally locking down my guy – I feel like we have a chance to do a lot,” said Burger.
He added: “In years past we had some really good players and they were the ones that led me and taught me everything. This year is a little different and I’m taking the lead role of having all the sophomores and juniors, and it’s nice having the role of a leader who can show them the way.”
“My personal goal is to make it back to state and get to the championship, we came up short a little bit last year. I think if we keep developing as a team, we have a serious chance to make it back there.”